Plan a survey

You will be creating a survey on a topic that interests you.

Do not worry about the mechanics of creating the survey for this assignment, focus on planning and design.

You should take some time to come up with a topic. Do not pick the first idea that pops into your mind. (It is human nature to settle on the solution to a problem too soon and then cling to that solution -- fight that urge).

Try to generate at least three ideas and think them over before settling on a topic. Who will be taking your survey? Do the results have any practical value? Are you genuinely curious about the topic?

Once you have a good topic, draft your questions. (Review the question types that are spelled out in our Survey Design topic module and be sure to include both open ended and limited response questions).

Set you questions aside for a day, then review them. The wording will have to be adjusted. Are the questions ambiguous? Have someone else take the survey and give you feedback on the way they interpreted the questions.

Type and turn in your plan outlining the survey topic, the target audience, your plan for reaching them. Also include the questions in your plan.

Link to topic module

Create a simple survey form

This assignment will give you practice with the mechanics of creating a simple form and start you thinking about survey design.

Google Docs has several modules, word processing, spreadsheet, presentation and forms.

Go to docs.google.com and create a new form like this one:

Make the field names and help text the same as mine. Note also that all four questions are required.

When your form is exactly like mine, get three friends to complete it.

The results of a form-based survey are presented in a Google Docs spreadsheet like this one:

(I only completed one form, so there is only one row).

Note that when you are looking at the spreadsheet view of your survey, you can go back to the form by clicking on the form menu (red arrow).

Turn in a printout showing your form and the spreadsheet view with three or more responses.

Link to topic module

Background survey

The purpose of this assignment is to get to know about each other and to demonstrate a network-based application -- in this case a survey service.

This class has few prerequisites -- familiarity with the Web, email, and Windows or Macintosh PCs. But, we have varied backgrounds. Some of you have worked with network applications and technology that we cover in this class. If we cover something you are already familiar with, I expect you to help your classmates learn.

Your survey answers will have no impact on your grade so be honest.

Complete the background survey online.